


The Story of Anatevka

by AshoftheTree08



Category: Fiddler on the Roof - Bock/Harnick/Stein
Genre: 1900s, 1920s, 20's slang, Antisemitism, Christianity, F/M, Historical References, Judaism, Past Violence, Period Typical Attitudes, Period Typical Bigotry, Period-Typical Racism, Period-Typical Sexism, Religion, Xenophobia, along with Yiddish, and Polish, and russian, because Chava and Fyedka are still in Krakow, because some of the OCs are Christians, due to the fact a pogrom happens in the musical, mainly shown through two characters, one is a female Archie Bunker, so he's not a big fan of the fact Fyedka is Russian, the other is a veteran of the Polish-Soviet War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:41:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24133018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshoftheTree08/pseuds/AshoftheTree08
Summary: Translation time!20s Slang:Mrs. Grundy- a strait-laced person (ex. Mrs. Staudenmaier)Daddy- a rich boyfriend (guess how Perchik will react once he learns his daughter was running around town with her best friend and her “Daddy”)Joint- an establishment or restaurant (the one they went to was what’s called a juice joint or speakeasy or a place that serves alcohol)Giggle water- alcohol (while it takes place during Prohibition, it wasn’t illegal to drink it-weird, right?)Polish:Ciocia- aunt (Zofia and Lukasz are obviously not related, but since they’re friends of the family, the children call them aunt and uncle-in Polish Wujek-and neither them nor their parents mind)Pan- Mister (I see Chava as someone who will be very formal to someone she barely knows and sometimes slips up even after she’s known them for a while)Russian:Blini-basically a Russian kind of pancakes.  However, the difference is that they’re much thinner than American pancakes due to them being unleavened.  So if you remember what Lena said, it should make it a lot scarier to be threatened to be pounded until you’re flat as blini since they’re so thin.And finally, the kids and their ages:Tzeitel and Motel’sRuchel- 19Feivel- 17Hodel and Perchik’sFaigel- 16Rivka- 12Shmuel- 10Chava and Fyedka’sMarya “Masha”- 19Tatyana “Tanya”- 17Yelena “Lena”- 15Anna “Hendel”- 13Esther- 10Rut- 9Chaim- 6 going on 7
Relationships: Chava/Fyedka (Fiddler on the Roof), Golde/Tevye (Fiddler on the Roof), Hodel/Perchik (Fiddler on the Roof), Motel/Tzeitel (Fiddler on the Roof)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	1. A Time to Listen

**New York, NY, United States**  
It was noon, and it meant it was lunchtime in the Kamzoil apartment, and Tzeitel and her daughter Ruchel were finishing up lunch preparations. Tzeitel was testing the soup while her daughter set the table, and once she confirmed it was warm enough, she watched her do her task. She sighed in disbelief at the fact her daughter was already 19 and married. She remembered when she was much younger and was teaching her how to cook, and by 10, the girl was making full meals. Now, she did such for herself and her husband, who was currently listening to the radio. She remembered when she and Motel received such on their wedding anniversary and danced to the music playing off of it the first night. However, when they finished dancing, they had to go through “dance lessons” because their children believed what they did wasn’t the correct dance for the songs. Despite not knowing the proper dance for the songs she heard, she still entertained herself with the music, and it led to her dancing when no one was looking while she did chores. 

  
Ruchel then approached her and said, “Mama, Chatzkel, and I wish to tell you something.”

  
The man she spoke of overheard and stood up to go to where his wife was. Once her son-in-law was present, she asked, “What is it that you wish to tell me?”

  
“Mama, we’d like to tell you that I’m-”

  
BAM! 

  
“MAMA!”

  
The three then turned to see that the door was slammed open and Feivel, Tzeitel’s son and Ruchel’s little brother, was standing in the doorway.

  
“Yes, Feivel?” Tzeitel calmly asked, not surprised by the loud slamming.

  
“Feivel! I was trying to tell Mama something very important,” Ruchel snapped.

  
“Calm down, sweetheart,” Chatzkel soothed.

  
“Not now,” Ruchel barked.

  
“Well, there’s something I need to ask her,” Feivel protested.

  
“What is it that you want to ask me?” Tzeitel interrupted, hoping it would stop the argument.

  
“You see Solomon, our friends, and I were talking, and his brother Aaron asked me something that I want to ask you now,” Feivel began as he approached her.

  
“What’s the question?” demanded Ruchel.

  
“How did you and Papa fall in love?”

  
Tzeitel froze for a second as a result. “Why do you ask?”

  
Ruchel’s anger changed into shock as she exclaimed, “You don’t remember?”

  
“Papa tried to tell me, but he was always interrupted,” Feivel explained.

  
It was then that a familiar voice called “Feivel! Did you learn the answer yet?”

  
“No, Solomon, but please come in,” Feivel shouted back.

  
It was then that the called person walked in, taking off his hat and holding it in his hands.

  
“Hello, Solomon,” Ruchel greeted warmly.

  
“Hello, Ruchel,” Solomon nodded.

  
“So, what brought up the question Feivel just asked?” Chatzkel asked.

  
“Aaron asked it because he didn’t think Feivel’s parents should be together because Mr. Kamzoil isn’t headstrong and confident like his wife,” Solomon stated.

  
“That shouldn’t matter. If that’s who his mother wanted to be with, that’s who she should be with,” Chatzkel remarked.

  
“But don’t forget that it was initially going to be where she had to marry someone chosen by a matchmaker. The men she brought would’ve never made her as happy as Papa makes her,” Ruchel interjected.

Tzeitel then decided to enter the conversation at this point. “It is true, and I am happy that your father stood up your zayde, and my father didn’t marry me off to a man that would’ve made people here wonder why on earth I married him.”

  
“When did he do this?” asked Solomon.

  
“And who was this man your parents wanted to marry you off to?” asked Chatzkel.

  
Tzeitel was about to speak when she remembered an earlier conversation she had with her father. He granted her and Motel permission to tell the children the whole story of what occurred before they left Anatevka. This was after Hodel asked him if it was okay for her and Chava to do so with their children since he couldn’t tell them himself due to distance. She got the necessary details from her sisters through letters and father through talking, and she knew the whole story by heart. She felt confident that she could tell the entire story by memory. She then looked at all of them and spoke something they didn’t expect.

  
“I’ll tell you the story right after lunch.”

  
“But what about the announcement Chatzkel and I want to make?” asked Ruchel.

  
“You can tell me after the story,” Tzeitel replied to her daughter before turning to her son’s friend. “Do you wish to join us for lunch?”

  
“Sure, Mrs. Kamzoil,” he nodded, “Thank you.”

  
Tzeitel quickly set an extra place for the guest that just arrived. While this was done, her daughter brought the food to the table. They all sat down and said prayers before the food was served. While they ate, Tzeitel recalled the story in her mind so she could make sure she remembered everything.

  
XXXXX  
 **San Francisco, CA, United States**  
Hodel sighed as she put thermometers in her children’s mouths. She couldn’t believe that two of her children got the chickenpox. She had to call her boss earlier to ask for a few days off so she could care for them. She knew she couldn’t catch it because she had it when she was seven. She remembered when she and Chava-who was five at the time-had to share a bed because both were afflicted with it. Tzeitel-who was nine and already had the chickenpox-had to watch them. Their mother had to care for Shprintze, who was two at the time and had to avoid people who were sick due to her pregnancy with Bielke. She felt she was repeating those few days by having her children Rivka and Shmuel share the bed she pulled out from the couch. However, she had more than one concern besides that of the two children’s health: Faigel, her eldest daughter, was missing.

  
She remembered when she went in to wake up Faigel that morning. Perchik was in the middle speaking to the principal of the school he taught at to ask if he could have a half-day due to the sudden illness of his two children during such. The room was empty, her bed was cold, her pajamas were thrown on the ground, and her closet was open. She remembered wanting to call the police to file a missing person report. Perchik said to wait until he got home under the condition that she didn’t come back while he was gone. It was now 9:00, and he was due to be home in one hour. She was now hoping that her daughter would come home soon.

  
Bang! Bang! Bang!

  
She walked to the door and went to open it. When she did, she felt God indeed answered her prayers when she saw her daughter among the three people at the door. Her daughter looked tired and ashamed. She wore a new dress with a skirt that went way above her ankles, and a hat covered her head. Next to her was her friend Pearl who wore a similar dress and had no hat to cover her short blonde hair. She smiled a crooked smile like a little child that knew they were in trouble. Behind the girls was a woman she recognized as Mrs. Edith Staudenmaier. 

  
Mrs. Staudenmaier was a widow who rented the apartment next to them and has been there since she moved there from the rural part of the San Francisco Bay Area. Perchik wasn’t fond of the woman since she explicitly said she hated the idea of living near “radical Jews.” Despite her complaints, she never moved out. Hodel was surprised that the same woman who threatened to report her and her husband as Reds was kind enough to bring her daughter back home.

  
“Are one of these painted ladies yours, Mrs. Tanzer?”

  
“Yes, Mrs. Staudenmaier, and thank you for finding my Faigel,” nodded Hodel.

  
“Faigel? Can’t you chose a normal name for your daughter like Nellie or Gertrude?” demanded her neighbor.

  
Hodel frowned at the woman and was about to say something when her daughter’s friend interrupted.

  
“Faigel doesn’t want to be known by any old lady names, Mrs. Grundy!” shouted Pearl. “Nor does she want to be called a whore!”

  
“Can you please stop yelling?” groaned the mentioned girl, feeling her forehead.

  
“Faigel, where were you and Pearl?” Hodel asked calmly, taking note of her daughter’s desire that people don’t speak too loudly.

  
“We were-” Faigel began to say before being cut off.

  
“It was a lot of fun. Daddy took me and Faigel downtown, and we went to this joint where we danced and got some giggle water and got some new clothes and haircuts…” 

  
“Daddy? Joint? Giggle water?” repeated Mrs. Staudenmaier.

  
“You don’t want to know,” Faigel warned.

  
“Come on, show your mom your new haircut,” Pearl urged.

  
“No,” Faigel refused, “Why do you think I asked your daddy to buy me this hat once I saw myself?”

  
“If you won’t show her, then I will,” declared Pearl. 

  
She successfully removed her friend’s hat despite much resistance. Such revealed that Faigel’s hair now went to her earlobe instead of her lower back like it did before.

  
“Faigel, what happened?” exclaimed Hodel.

  
“I didn’t realize this happened until I woke up this morning,” Faigel explained. She then sighed before confessing, “Still, I will say I kind of like the idea of how my hair will be easy to brush now that it’s at this length.”

  
“You look like a boy,” Rivka coughed from inside the apartment.

  
“And you look like a clown suit,” Faigel shot back.

  
Rivka stuck her tongue out, and Faigel did the same thing. Noticing this, Hodel exclaimed, “That’s enough!” and they stopped immediately.

  
“So, shall I leave this baggage here until her parents pick her up?” sniffed Edith, indicating Pearl.

  
“You might as well leave Miss McNeely here,” Hodel remarked.

  
Pearl then smiled and waltzed in the apartment. Faigel followed behind and headed to the kitchen, where she got some coffee.

  
“Where I’m from, if she did something like this, she wouldn’t sit for days,” Edith exclaimed, hoping it would hint towards a punishment she desired to see the girls receive. 

  
“Perchik believes whipping a child makes them no different than a farm animal,” Hodel stated.

  
“Again, your husband has some odd beliefs,” Edith snorted.

  
“I wonder why Mrs. Grundy doesn’t look in the mirror,” Pearl jested, “Is it because she’s too ugly?”

  
Faigel ignored her friend and drank from the cup of coffee she just poured.

  
“You sound like every villager that was in Anatevka,” Hodel remarked in response to her neighbor.

  
“What was it like in Anatevka?” asked Rivka.

  
“Anatevka?” her neighbor repeated, bringing her out of her thoughts. “Where’s that?”

  
Hodel paused and remembered her conversation with Tzeitel, letting her know of what Chava had asked her to ask their father. It was after Tzeitel said she talked to Papa. In the conversation, she was told that her father gave her and Chava permission to tell them the story of what occurred before they left Anatevka. They then exchanged things they knew of the story to each other, and she learned of what their Papa and sisters had to add to the story. Now that she knew the whole story, she felt she was ready to tell it, and right now was the opportunity.

  
“I’ll let you know, but for now, please sit down while I check my children’s temperature,” Hodel offered. 

  
While Mrs. Staudenmaier sat in the nearby loveseat, she took both thermometers out and read both temperatures: 37 and 38 degrees Celsius or 100 and 101 degrees Fahrenheit. Cringing at the second reading, she asked Pearl, who was sitting on a dining room chair, to get some towels and wet them so she could cool her children’s temperature. She then quickly ran to the kitchen and got the ingredients to make some kasha for her eldest daughter so she could have something to eat. While she did this, she thought of the story, wondering if it’ll teach them a lesson about something.  
XXXXX  
 **Krakow, Poland**  
Chava sighed as she looked at the time: 6:00. She couldn’t believe it was that time already, and Fyedka had not arrived home. She already had the Sabbath meal with her children, and she hoped he would come before sundown. She was now trying to relax on the couch with her middle child Anna-also called Hendel-who sat and read next to her. On the ground, her youngest daughters Esther and Rut drew pictures, and her son and three eldest daughters played a card game on the dining room table. She felt everything was nice and calm, minus her worries. 

  
“Ha! I won again!” her son shouted, feeling great pride in winning a third time in a row.

  
“Dang it!” his third eldest sister swore.

  
The second oldest daughter was silent in celebration. The eldest of the group looked with suspicion concerning the current winning streak.

  
“I have two theories on why you and Tanya win,” the eldest of the siblings remarked, “number one-you’re lucky, and number two-you might be cheating.” 

  
“Masha, you know Chaim wouldn’t cheat. He may do a lot of things, but he doesn’t cheat,” the mentioned girl defended.

  
“I know one of the things is defeating you at chess despite him barely knowing it,” Masha reminded.

  
Tanya frowned at her for the reminder.

  
“I say it’s luck,” the boy interjected.

  
“Well, hopefully, you’ll enjoy your ‘luck’ while it lasts,” Masha smirked.

  
Chaim was ready to say something else when a knock was heard on the door.

  
“Can you get that, Lena?” Masha asked, turning to her partner in the game.

  
“Yes, Masha,” the girl nodded before she got up and opened the door. Chava hoped it was Fyedka at the door and even stood up and called his name cheerfully. However, once she saw it wasn’t him, she returned to her look of sadness.

  
“I didn’t think I could ever get confused with the Russian,” the man at the door snorted. “If that happened to me at the beginning of this decade, I’d be dead.”

  
“Lukasz,” the woman next to him scolded before looking to everyone and smiling. “Good evening, Chava, children.”

  
“How are you, Ciocia Zofia?” asked Tanya.

  
“Excellent,” she smiled as the door closed behind her and her husband.

  
“Is there a good reason for you to come here, Pan Maliszewski?” Chava questioned.

  
“I just wanted to make sure my favorite employee was alright, and for the hundredth time, you can call me Lukasz,” the mentioned man explained.

  
“I’m doing fine. I’m just waiting for my husband to come home,” Chava smiled, thankful for her employer’s kindness.

  
“You don’t know where he is?” asked Zofia.

  
“No, and it’s unusual for him to not be home before the Sabbath,” Chava replied.

  
“Maybe his boss asked him to wait on some more tables. I do know Pan Dabrowski is a man who wants to make sure all tasks are complete before he quits doing something,” suggested Zofia.

  
“We should go to the restaurant and check to see if that’s it,” Chaim replied.

  
“I hope you don’t plan on going alone,” Masha remarked.

  
“What do you mean?” asked Chaim, “Are you saying I can’t ask Papa’s boss if he can let Papa go home?”

  
“Well, we know how you act when you want to know something immediately, and let’s just say you cannot just speak like that to a man like Stanislaw Dabrowski,” Lena explained. “If it wasn’t for the fact you’re still a child, he’d pound you until you’re flat as blini.”

  
“I’m not scared of Pan Dabrowski,” Chaim denied.

  
“Then that would make you one of the few people who aren’t,” Lukasz remarked, “I remember meeting him at the front. He frightened the enemy with his deadly glares, great strength, and quick aim. I’m surprised your Papa shows no fear when he goes to work for him.”

  
“You know he only has that job so we can go to America,” Chava reminded.

  
“I know, and I will miss you when you go to New York,” Lukasz replied. “The presence of you and your children brings my wife and me great joy.”

  
“What about Fyedka? You surely don’t mind his presence, right?” Chava remarked.

  
“Um…” Lukasz began before he stuttered a little. 

  
This was stopped by his wife saying, “No, we don’t mind him at all,” clenching her teeth at the last two words and scowling at her own husband.

  
“I’m glad that we have you as friends, too,” smiled Chava.

  
“So, is someone going to go get Papa or not?” interrupted Chaim.

  
“I’ll go,” Masha announced.

  
“I’ll go too,” Lena followed.

  
“Girls, you really don’t have to,” Chava sighed.

  
“But we want to, Mama,” Lena replied, “And we’ll be sure to find him and bring him home before you go to bed.”

  
Chava sighed, remembering how she was when she was around the girl’s age. “Go ahead, but be careful.”

  
“We will, and we won’t come back until we’ve found Papa,” Lena explained.

  
With that, she and Masha grabbed their coats and walked out of the house.

  
“I hope no one has decided to harm him,” Lukasz remarked. “I know many people still aren’t fond of your husband’s people since they attacked our country, not even a decade ago.”

  
“Fyedka’s not a Bolshevik, Lukasz,” Chava corrected.

  
“Communist or not, us Poles have never been too happy with Russians,” Lukasz reminded.

  
“Why couldn’t you and Papa stay in Anatevka?” Chaim interjected, “We probably would’ve fit in better.”

  
Lukasz laughed at the child’s naivety. 

  
“What’s so funny?” Chaim demanded, starting to get angry.

  
“Trust me, little one, it would’ve been a lot worse in your parent’s home village,” the man chuckled as he patted the ‘little one’ on the head.

  
“How so? What was so bad about it that they had to leave?” Chaim continued questioning.

  
It was at that point that Chava remembered writing to her sisters about telling the story to their own children. It was her idea since her children couldn’t see their zayde face to face, and she wasn’t sure if he would even look upon his grandchildren that were fathered by a gentile. She got a reply that her Papa gave permission and received the missing pieces of the story she needed to tell the whole story from multiple letters. She was happy her father still cared and hoped that by knowing the other side of the story, she could be close to telling the whole story.

  
“I shall tell you, but it’ll be more than just why we left. It’ll also be about how we met, what my family was like, and what Anatevka was like,” Chava explained.

  
“Mama, you’re actually telling them-” Tanya began upon remembering when her mother and father told her and Masha and Lena about how they met.

  
“Yes, Tanya, I am,” Chava nodded. “Gather around children.”

  
Esther and Rut sat up, and Hendel closed her book after hearing such. Chaim and Tanya sat on the ground, and Lukasz and Zofia followed suit. Meanwhile, in New York, Tzeitel and her son shared a couch, her daughter and son-in-law took the loveseat, and Solomon took a dining room chair. At the same time in San Francisco, Hodel took a dining room chair while Faigel kneeled by the coffee table, and Pearl kneeled next to her. 

  
The three women took a deep breath and began.

  
“The story I will tell you is a very unique one,” Tzeitel began.

  
“It has lessons that will be taught,” Hodel added.

  
“And it will show many struggles that we face as we try to find happiness, peace, and balance,” Chava added.

  
“And it all starts by telling you what we’re all considered,” Tzeitel finished.

  
“What?” Feivel, Rivka, Hendel, and Chaim all asked.

  
“A fiddler on the roof,” the women replied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation time!  
> 20s Slang:  
> Mrs. Grundy- a strait-laced person (ex. Mrs. Staudenmaier)  
> Daddy- a rich boyfriend (guess how Perchik will react once he learns his daughter was running around town with her best friend and her “Daddy”)  
> Joint- an establishment or restaurant (the one they went to was what’s called a juice joint or speakeasy or a place that serves alcohol)  
> Giggle water- alcohol (while it takes place during Prohibition, it wasn’t illegal to drink it-weird, right?)  
> Polish:  
> Ciocia- aunt (Zofia and Lukasz are obviously not related, but since they’re friends of the family, the children call them aunt and uncle-in Polish Wujek-and neither them nor their parents mind)  
> Pan- Mister (I see Chava as someone who will be very formal to someone she barely knows and sometimes slips up even after she’s known them for a while)  
> Russian:  
> Blini-basically a Russian kind of pancakes. However, the difference is that they’re much thinner than American pancakes due to them being unleavened. So if you remember what Lena said, it should make it a lot scarier to be threatened to be pounded until you’re flat as blini since they’re so thin. 
> 
> And finally, the kids and their ages:  
> Tzeitel and Motel’s  
> Ruchel- 19  
> Feivel- 17  
> Hodel and Perchik’s  
> Faigel- 16  
> Rivka- 12  
> Shmuel- 10  
> Chava and Fyedka’s  
> Marya “Masha”- 19  
> Tatyana “Tanya”- 17  
> Yelena “Lena”- 15  
> Anna “Hendel”- 13  
> Esther- 10  
> Rut- 9  
> Chaim- 6 going on 7


	2. Tradition

“What?” asked Ruchel.

  
“What do you mean by that?” her husband followed.

  
“I hope I heard that correctly,” muttered Faigel after swallowing some kasha.

  
“Is it some Old World proverb?” Pearl asked.

  
“Didn’t think you’d start like that,” coughed Lukasz.

  
“I was expecting a different opening,” Tanya added.

  
“I know it sounds crazy, but you’ll see what I mean once I explain,” Tzeitel interjected. “There was a man in our village who would sit or stand on a rooftop and play some of the most beautiful tunes one could hear.”

  
“And the reason why everyone would be considered such is that we all try to play a nice and pleasant song without breaking our neck,” Chava added.

  
“I will admit it’s not easy to stay up there,” Hodel continued.

  
“No wonder,” Mrs. Staudenmaier snorted.

  
“I can see why. It’s dangerous up on the roof!” Esther exclaimed. 

She remembered when she found her older sister up on the roof of their home one time sitting and reading a book and wondered how she could climb up and not fall. She also remembered how she slipped down when their parents found her, and their papa caught her before she hit the ground and broke her neck.

  
“Why would you stay up there?” asked Solomon.

  
“You could say the roof is Anatevka,” Tzeitel replied.

  
“And we stay up there because it’s our home,” Chava finished.

  
“But you and Papa left!” Chaim reminded his mother.

  
“I have a question concerning that,” Chatzkel stated.

  
“How did you keep your balance?” asked Shmuel.

  
“Well, many will have different answers, but for your zayde, his answer is one word,” Hodel explained.

  
“Tradition,” the sisters said together.

  
Everyone paused so they could process what they just heard. Once they were done, the silence broke.

  
“What kind of traditions?” asked Rivka.

  
“I’m sure it’s a lot different from the kind followed by Polish Jews,” Lukasz guessed.

  
“I know they’re different from such in America, but how much so?” Solomon questioned.

  
“There was one for everything,” Tzeitel said.

  
“How to sleep, eat, work, wear clothes…” Hodel listed.

  
“I bet the clothes you had to wear weren’t the cat’s pajamas,” Pearl huffed.

  
Hodel paused to guess the meaning to the phrase the teen uttered but decided to wait until later to ask.

  
“Some examples included that we always kept our heads covered, and men always wore their prayer shawl,” Chava added.

  
“The second is to show a constant devotion to God,” Hodel explained.

  
“How did these traditions get started?” asked Shmuel.

  
“I don’t know, but they’re traditions,” Hodel replied.

  
“And because of such, everyone had something they were expected to do, and it was believed that was what God wanted,” Tzeitel went on.

  
“Such as…?” Solomon began.

  
“Every member of the family had something to do,” she replied.

  
“The papa was expected to work day and night to feed his family and say his daily prayers. He was also expected to have the final word due to him being master of the house,” Chava recalled.

  
“Papa works day and night, but it’s not only to feed us but also to make enough so we can go to America,” Hendel noted.

  
“I don’t know if Papa says his prayers daily,” Faigel remarked as she took one of the wet towels.

  
“I believe you have the final say, Mama, because Papa tries to make sure you’re happy with his decisions,” Feivel admitted.

  
“Speaking of which, let me tell you about what was expected of the mama,” Tzeitel remarked.

  
“The mama had to know how to make a proper, quiet, and kosher home, raise a family, and run the home,” Hodel explained.

  
“Did she get to go out and have fun?” asked Pearl.

  
“No,” Hodel answered.

  
“Why do you have to do all that?” Pearl whined, “It sounds so boring!”

  
“I was told it was so Papa was free to read the Holy Book,” Hodel responded.

  
“Could women read the Holy Book?” Hendel asked upon learning such from her mother.

  
“Sadly, women weren’t seen as fit to study the Talmud and other religious texts,” Chava explained.

  
“That’s so unfair!” the girl cried.

  
“So is life,” Lukasz added, “If it were fair, Poland would’ve gotten independence years ago.”

  
“Well, here in America, women can work outside the home, but we’re still expected to do housework and raise children,” Ruchel remarked.

  
“I remember from when I was 9 and Ruchel was 11 that you worked during the Great War, Mama,” Feivel added.

  
“You have that job at the grocery store on top of running the home,” Rivka reminded.

  
“And you work day and night too, Mama, and it’s for the same reasons as Papa,” Rut replied.

  
“Well, every little bit helps, Rut,” Chava chuckled.

  
“What did sons have to do?” asked Chaim.

  
“I imagine you’d still have to go to Hebrew school, Chaim,” Tanya bet before laughing.

  
“Yes, and most boys in the village started as young as three,” Chava agreed.

  
“At ten, boys learned a trade. So, if we were still in Anatevka, you’d be taught how to sew to prepare you for a career as a tailor,” Tzeitel explained, looking at her son.

  
“But what if I wanted to be something else like a doctor?” asked Feivel.

  
“‘Too bad,’ is what they would’ve told you,” Tzeitel replied.

  
“There was also a marriage arranged for you, and you hoped that she was at least pretty,” Hodel finished, before getting up to move her son’s hand from where he wanted to scratch one of the sores.

  
“But what about personality?” asked Shmuel as he held his right wrist so it won’t happen again. “I know this boy whose uncle married a woman who seems to only care about what people look like and nothing else.”

  
“What about her being dedicated? I know some boys whose Mamas don’t even care about them or their siblings,” Chaim interjected.

  
“What about if she’s nice?” asked Feivel. “I know a few boys who have Mamas who are very mean.”

  
“That didn’t matter to most boys I knew in Anatevka,” Hodel remarked, “They just wanted a pretty girl to be their bride.”

  
“So why is it a crime for me to go out with Robert?” Pearl interrupted, “He wants a pretty girl to squeeze, so why can’t I be that girl?”

  
“The problem isn’t that you want to be his girl; the problem is that you’re a gold digger,” Faigel groaned.

  
“Ew!” Rivka cried, “She picks her nose?”

  
“So what did the daughters do?” asked Ruchel, wanting to get back on track.

  
“The daughters stayed home and were taught by their mamas different things. How to mend clothes, tend to household chores, and fix food to prepare her for marriage with a man her papa chose,” Tzeitel listed.

  
“I’d also like to add that since we had a farm, your aunts and I had to do things like churn butter, grind corn, control weeds, tend to the soil, milk cows, and other things,” Chava added.

  
“It’s like growing up around Lwow,” Zofia mused, remembering her childhood days where she had to do farm work on her family’s farm. “Although Tato didn’t want me to marry Lukasz until he learned he was from a city not touched by the war.”

  
“I know that man was so displeased with me. I didn’t know what he hated the most: my place of origin, status as a soldier, ideas about Poland, or any other things I can’t think of right now,” Lukasz complained.

“I thank God he allowed us to marry in Krakow because the last thing I needed was him pestering over details of the wedding.”

  
“I don’t like the idea that the father chooses who marries me. I love my ol’ man, but his idea of who my husband should be doesn’t want me to get the ol’ handcuff,” Pearl remarked.

  
Hodel again looked confused, trying to figure out what the girl meant by a handcuff.

  
“So, that’s a typical family in Anatevka?” Ruchel asked.

  
“Exactly,” Tzeitel nodded.

  
“Were there any unique people in the village?” asked Feivel, “Ones that were out of the ordinary, whether it would be their career or lifestyle?”

  
“Yes, and I know a few,” his mother nodded. “There was Yente, the matchmaker,” she began with a look of distastefulness.

  
“Reb Nachum, the beggar,” Hodel added, looking not as distasteful as her sister in New York did.

  
“And of course, the Rabbi,” Chava finished on a serious note.

  
“Was she that bad?” Feivel asked, noting his mother’s facial expression.

  
“Probably so, especially since her name means a gossip,” Ruchel answered for her mother.

  
“Would he always bug you?” muttered Faigel. She was trying to push the homeless people she saw on the streets of San Francisco out of her mind since she knew a village beggar was nothing like a city beggar.

  
“Bet he was such a pill,” Pearl sniffed, picturing the homeless people she often saw in the city.

  
“What was the Rabbi like? I bet he was very wise,” Hendel smiled.

  
“I also bet that he made comments that Papa wouldn’t like,” Tanya retorted.

  
“Speaking of your papa, he was part of the larger group that lived outside of where I lived,” Chava interrupted.

  
“It was the same village, but it segregated with the larger part going to the Russians of the village and the smaller part going to us Jews,” Tzeitel explained.

  
“Where the Jews lived was called a shtetl, which was designated for only Jews,” continued Hodel.

  
“So, it’s like Chinatown?” Pearl asked.

  
“Not exactly. I’m sure the Chinese could live outside the neighborhood you mentioned,” Hodel disclaimed.

  
“Not this one,” her neighbor warned.

  
Hodel frowned at her comments, noticing the woman was indeed racist as her husband described, among other things. She then continued by saying, “Us Jews had to stay inside the shtetl or else we could get into big trouble. If I had to compare it to anything in America, I would have to compare it to the segregation of white and black people.” 

  
“The unwritten code was that the Jews didn’t bother the Russians, and the Russians, in return, didn’t bother the Jews,” Tzeitel stated.

  
“Then how did Uncle Fyedka become our uncle?” asked Feivel.

  
“Wait a minute. You never told me about Uncle Fyedka,” Solomon broke in.

  
“Yes, I did. I just didn’t refer to him by name,” replied Feivel.

  
“You said he was Orthodox!” exclaimed Solomon.

  
“I meant Russian Orthodox!” Feivel shouted back.

  
“So, your uncle’s a goy?” Chatzkel asked.

  
“Yes, my uncle’s a gentile, but Aunt Chava wanted to marry him,” Feivel groaned.

  
“And her husband’s status as a Jew or Gentile will not change her children’s status as Jews,” Ruchel added, “Have you forgotten that one must have a Jewish mother to be called a Jew?”

  
Chatzkel was silent after this.

  
“So how did you get along?” asked Pearl.

  
“We usually got along excellently,” Hodel began describing.

  
“There were a couple of disagreements though like the time this man sold another a horse that was said to be six but was actually twice that age,” Chava recalled.

  
“I bet he was furious once he found out,” Lukasz chortled, trying to suppress the loud laugh that wanted to escape due to him imagining the argument.

  
“Let’s just say it caused a great number of people to start bickering,” remarked Chava.

  
“That doesn’t sound good,” Zofia murmured.

  
“And that’s all the traditions I can think of,” Chava sighed.

  
Lukasz, at this point, stopped laughing and said in a more serious tone, “That’s nice, but I would like to ask one thing.”

  
“What was the point of all these traditions?” Pearl questioned.

  
“What would happen if you didn’t follow these traditions?” asked Solomon.

  
“According to my papa,” Tzeitel began.

  
“Without traditions,” Hodel continued.

  
“Our lives would be as shaky…” Chava went on.

  
“As a fiddler on the roof,” they all said together.

  
“The fiddler’s a recurring theme in this story, right?” Mrs. Staudenmaier snorted.

  
“Yes,” Hodel nodded.

  
“I’m curious about when you and Papa come in,” Rut piped.

  
“Papa won’t come in for a while, but my sisters and I are about to come in and your two uncles too,” Chava explained.

  
“Dyadya Motel and Dyadya Perchik are in this story?” Hendel asked.

  
“Of course, Hendel,” Chava replied. “It’s not just a story about your papa and me. It’s also about my sisters and their current spouses, your zayde, and the rest of my family.”

  
“Why do we have to hear about Tante Tzeitel and Tante Chava?” whined Faigel.

  
“Because how they married their spouses is important, especially when you compare them to how I got married to your papa,” Hodel replied.

  
“How?” asked all of her children.

  
“You’ll see,” Hodel smiled.

  
“And now, we shall begin the part where it involves my sisters and me and how we broke some of the traditions that were just mentioned,” Tzeitel announced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you know what time it is? Translation Time!
> 
> 20s slang-  
> Cat’s pajamas- the best or greatest (kind of like bee’s knees)  
> Gold digger- someone who dates someone for their money (not someone who picks their nose when relating this to Pearl)  
> Handcuff- engagement ring  
> Pill- an unlikable person
> 
> Yiddish-  
> Zayde- grandfather  
> Goy- gentile  
> Tante- aunt
> 
> Russian  
> Dyadya- uncle (because I see the children speaking Russian only at home, Polish outside of the home, and Yiddish in both places) 
> 
> Polish  
> Lwow-Polish name for the Ukrainian city of Lviv, which was a part of Poland at the time.


End file.
